Science news

• Cosmic Rockers Unite in Honor of 'Starman' David Bowie

  16-01-2016 19:30
  
  What did Dave Bowie mean to you? Some artists who drank the "Starman" juice went on to create a place of their own in the world that Bowie knew all too well, Rock 'n' Roll. Singer/songwriter Grace Potter and Claudio Sanchez, founder/singer/songwriter of Coheed and Cambria, fit that mold and were influenced by David Bowie.
  
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• Tapping the Human Microbiome (Kavli Hangout)

  16-01-2016 19:18
  Late last year, 48 scientists from 50 U.S. institutions proposed the "Unified Microbiome Initiative," a national effort to decipher the nature, and applications, of microbiomes, ecosystems of microscopic life forms such as bacteria, viruses, archaea and fungi. Scientists can now identify microbes by the organisms' DNA, and have thereby discovered that microbiomes are far more diverse than anyone ever imagined. Each microbiome potentially includes hundreds of thousands of microbial species, all i
  
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• The Weird, But True, Evidence for 'Spooky Action' at Distance (Kavli Hangout)

  16-01-2016 19:02
  Alan Brown, writer and blogger for The Kavli Foundation, contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
  
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• Washingtonians, meet Bei Bei the giant panda

  16-01-2016 18:34
  
  Washingtonians got their first close-up look Saturday at the giant panda cub Bei Bei, the new star of the National Zoo.
  
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• SpaceX Bullish on Odds of Rocket-Landing Success Sunday

  16-01-2016 16:40
  
  SpaceX is cautiously optimistic that it will be able to make spaceflight history yet again Sunday (Jan. 17). The private spaceflight company aims to land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on an uncrewed "drone ship" in the Pacific Ocean Sunday, during the launch of the Jason-3 ocean-monitoring satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California. SpaceX succeeded in bringing a Falcon 9 first stage back on terra firma Dec. 21 at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station —&nb
  
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• The Revenant tests heart-pounding action with wearable technology

  16-01-2016 16:06 via cbc.ca
  
  20th Century Fox says that it used a wearable wristband on over 100 people in test screenings for Oscar-contender The Revenant before it hit theaters in December.
  
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• Butchered Mammoth Suggests Humans Lived in Siberia 45,000 Years Ago

  16-01-2016 15:34
  
  The slashed and punctured bones of a woolly mammoth suggest that humans lived in the far northern reaches of Siberia earlier than scientists had previously thought, a new study finds. Before the surprising discovery, researchers thought that humans lived in the freezing Siberian Arctic no earlier than about 30,000 to 35,000 years ago. Now, the newly studied mammoth carcass suggests that people lived in the area, where they butchered the likes of this giant animal about 45,000 years ago.
  
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• A Look at Alex: NASA Satellite Spies Oddball January Hurricane

  16-01-2016 15:32
  
  It's rare to see a hurricane in January, but Hurricane Alex formed yesterday (Jan. 14) in the Atlantic Ocean — well after the end of the hurricane season — and a NASA satellite caught a glimpse of the menacing storm. It marks the first time a hurricane has formed in the Atlantic in the month of January since 1938, according to NASA's Earth Observatory. NASA's Terra satellite spied the hurricane yesterday as it was developing.
  
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• West Africa Is Not 'Ebola Free' After All, New Case Shows

  16-01-2016 15:24
  The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is not over — just one day after the region was declared "Ebola-free," a new case of the virus was confirmed in Sierra Leone. The new case involved a 22-year-old woman, who was found dead in northern Sierra Leone and tested positive for the disease today (Jan. 15), according to The New York Times. Just yesterday, the World Health Organization declared the end of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, because the three hardest-hit countries in the region &mdash
  
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• Rampaging elephants force Myanmar villagers into tree-top refuges

  16-01-2016 15:16
  
  Pushed from their forest home by encroaching farm land, wild elephants are driving fearful villagers in a Myanmar township to seek refuge in tree houses while the animals storm their rice paddies looking for food.
  
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• 'Exhilarating': Peake Tweets Spacewalk Selfie

  16-01-2016 14:49
  
  Tim Peake has returned to the International Space Station after completing his first spacewalk, and described his mission as one that "will be etched in my memory forever". The British astronaut said it was an "incredible feeling" to venture outside with his American colleague Colonel Tim Kopra. Major Peake also shared pictures of his "exhilarating" feat - with a selfie that was truly out of this world.
  
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• Brazil to fund development of vaccine for Zika virus

  16-01-2016 14:45
  SAO PAULO (AP) — The Brazilian government says it is directing funds to a biomedical research center to help develop a vaccine against a virus linked to brain damage in babies.
  
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• 'Exhilarating': Peake's Joy At First Spacewalk

  16-01-2016 11:15
  
  Tim Peake has returned to the International Space Station after completing his first spacewalk, and described his mission as one that "will be etched in my memory forever". The British astronaut said it was an "incredible feeling" to venture outside with his American colleague Colonel Tim Kopra. Major Peake also shared pictures of his "exhilarating" feat - with a selfie that was truly out of this world.
  
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• Why Google's workplaces make other office workers envious

  16-01-2016 11:00 via cbc.ca
  
  Google's Kitchener, Ont., is the latest office to offer staff a variety of benefits, from a cafeteria with free food to a climbing gym for keeping fit.
  
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• SpaceX landing on a drone ship could be 1st step to Mars

  16-01-2016 11:00 via cbc.ca
  
  Slow a rocket booster tearing through space at nearly 8,000 km/h way down; guide the 12-storey behemoth safely back toward Earth; and land it on a drone floating in the Pacific. This is the endeavour that SpaceX will attempt with the upcoming launch of its newest Falcon 9 rocket.
  
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• SpaceX Falcon 9 landing on drone ship a step to deep space travel

  16-01-2016 11:00 via cbc.ca
  
  Slow a rocket booster tearing through space at nearly 8,000 km/h way down; guide the 12-storey behemoth safely back toward Earth; and land it on a drone floating in the Pacific. This is the endeavour that SpaceX will attempt with the upcoming launch of its newest Falcon 9 rocket.
  
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• SpaceX to launch ocean satellite, try water return Sunday

  16-01-2016 10:52
  A $180 million satellite to study the world's oceans in a changing climate will blast off Sunday atop a Falcon 9 rocket, which SpaceX will try to land on a floating platform after launch.
  
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• Tim Peake spacewalk: Nasa ends ISS exercise early after helmet leak

  16-01-2016 08:22
  Nasa was forced to end a spacewalk involving British astronaut Tim Peake earlier than scheduled as fellow astronaut Tim Kopra reported a leak in his spacesuit helmet. Royce Renfrew, flight director said the International Space Station (ISS) suspended the spacewalk as a precautionary measure and the astronauts were not in any danger. About three hours into the spacewalk, Kopra, 52, reported that his helmet pad was damp and a ball of water had collected in his helmet, prompting Nasa to end the exe
  
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• Rampaging elephants force Myanmar villagers to tree-top refuge

  16-01-2016 06:03
  
  Pushed from their forest home by encroaching farm land, wild elephants are driving fearful villagers in a Myanmar township to seek refuge in tree houses while the animals storm their rice paddies looking for food.
  
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• Extra-Tropical Alex speeding through north Atlantic

  16-01-2016 06:00
  
  (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) Tropical Storm Alex quickly acquired extra-tropical characteristics late on Jan. 15, 2016 as it sped northward toward Greenland in the North Atlantic Ocean. A GOES-East satellite image on Jan. 16, 2016 showed the elongated system south of Greenland.
  
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• Fracking in Alberta: daily quakes and thirsty residents

  16-01-2016 03:37
  One earthquake is recorded on average each day in a western Canadian region where companies extract oil by fracking, according to statistics published by the Canadian province's energy regulatory agency.
  
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• CDC issues travel guidelines for pregnant women

  16-01-2016 02:48
  
  Pregnant women should consider postponing travel to much of Latin America and the Caribbean.
  
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• U.S. Warns Pregnant Women to Avoid Zika Virus

  16-01-2016 02:25 via rss.sciam.com
  
  Centers for Disease Control issues travel warning due to birth defects linked to the rapidly spreading mosquito-borne disease
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• Tim Peake: How a space hero was made

  16-01-2016 01:50 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The making of British space hero Tim Peake
  
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